Portal:Trains/Did you know/February 2014

Santa Fe car number 501 at the railway's main station in San Diego before entering service in 1950

...that newspaper reports of the 1950s describing the "Turquoise Room" of Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway's new Pleasure Dome cars, which were built for use on the Super Chief trains, noted that the cars constituted "the first private dining room on wheels"?

The Pacific Falls, formerly UP #1414, in Amtrak service on the Southwest Limited in 1974

...that Union Pacific Railroad's Pacific series fleet of fifty lightweight streamlined sleeping cars on various overnight streamliners in the 1950s and 1960s featured corrugated exteriors instead of smooth, which was uncommon for Union Pacific equipment?

Construction for track quadrupling at Higashi-Kitazawa Station in 2006

...that Odakyu Electric Railway is carrying out a major construction project on its Odawara Line between Yoyogi-Uehara and Mukōgaoka-Yūen stations in Japan to quadruple the tracks by stacking the tracks underground with construction expected to continue through 2018?

Zhuhai North Railway Station in 2011

...that from its opening in January 2011 until 31 December 2012, Zhuhai North Railway Station was the only open station in Zhuhai, China, and it served as the temporary southern terminus of the Guangzhou–Zhuhai Intercity Railway until the line was extended to the permanent southern terminus at the Zhuhai Railway Station?

The platform and station building of Welwyn North railway station in 2004

...that Welwyn North railway station in England is a rare survivor of architecture from the early days of the Great Northern Railway and the main station building, the footbridge, the tunnel portal to the north and Welwyn Viaduct to the south are all Grade 2 listed?

The memorial at the end of the tracks at Stuttgart North station

...that in 2006 a memorial was installed at Stuttgart North station in Germany to commemorate the use of the station's freight loading tracks for the deportation of more than 2,200 Jews from all over Württemberg to Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Riga and Izbica?

Entrance to Paris Metro's Gare du Nord in 2007

...that Gare du Nord on Paris Métro's line 4 and line 5 is the busiest station in the system (not including RER), with 48 million entrances a year?

Map of Dunstable in 1944 showing the locations of its former stations

...that when Dunstable North railway station in England was closed as part of the Beeching cuts in 1965, the station was still lit by gas lamps?

Bucharest North station in 2011

...that Bucharest North railway station (Romanian: București Gara de Nord), which originally opened in 1872 and is now the main railway station in Bucharest, is the largest railway station in Romania?

The entrance to Blackpool North station in 2010

...that the present Blackpool North railway station in England is based on the 1938 concrete canopy which covered the entrance to the former excursion platforms of the original 1846 Talbot Road station?

The platforms and tracks of Nordbahnhof station in 2008

...that due to its location in what became East Berlin, Berlin S-Bahn's Nordbahnhof, which was originally opened as part of Stettiner Bahnhof in 1936, remained an empty and barely lit ghost station from 1961 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990?

Nishi-Eifuku Station in 2008

...that Nishi-Eifuku Station, on the Keio Inokashira Line in Suginami, Tokyo, Japan, is only 700 metres (2,300 ft) from neighboring Eifukucho Station, and both Eifukuchō Station and Hamadayama Station can be seen from the platform?

Navan Junction in 1982 with a Kingscourt train

...that although Navan Junction railway station in County Meath, Ireland, was closed in 1963, freight trains still pass through the site and the Midland Great Western Railway goods shed and the Great Northern Railway down platform still stand to mark the location of the former station?

Builder's photo of Pioneer circa 1901 before its conversion to an 0-4-2 wheel arrangement

...that Namaqualand Railway's 0-4-2ST locomotive Pioneer was commandeered used by Boer forces in 1902 to propel a mobile bomb in the form of a wagon-load of dynamite into the besieged town of O'okiep, Cape Colony?

Aerial photo of the Mt Clare Shops in 1971

...that the Mount Clare Shops complex, in Baltimore, Maryland, now the home of the B&O Railroad Museum, was originally founded by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1829, making it the oldest railroad manufacturing complex in the United States?

The Southern entrance of Minami-Koshigaya Station in 2009

...that in 2010, JR East's Minami-Koshigaya Station in Koshigaya, Saitama, Japan, was used by an average of 65,740 boarding passengers daily, making it the second busiest station on the Musashino Line after Minami-Funabashi?

The FNM bridge over Rio Balsas in 1883

Kitson works picture of the Cape Copper Company 0-4-0WT Condenser no. 1 "John Taylor" circa 1886

...that Namaqualand Railway's 0-4-0WT Condenser locomotives featured a prominent steam condenser mounted overhead in a roof-like frame containing copper coils that formed an atmospheric radiator which then fed condensed steam back for re-use into the large water tank underneath the locomotive's copper boiler?

MÁV 242 001 at the Hungarian Railway Museum in 2007 following its restoration

...that the Hungarian State Railways Class 242 of 4-4-4T steam locomotives were highly unusual in that they were both streamlined, as was the fashion of the 1930s for fast express service, but they were also tank locomotives?